Snails fattened with milk – Roman delicacy
One of the favourite delicacies of the ancient Romans was snails fattened with milk. Varro or Pliny the Elder mention that rich Romans enjoyed snails from their own farms.
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Curiosities of ancient Rome (Food)
The world of ancient Romans abounded in a number of amazing curiosities and information. The source of knowledge about the life of the Romans are mainly works left to us by ancient writers or discoveries. The Romans left behind a lot of strange information and facts that are sometimes hard to believe.
Romans knew rice
Rice was known in ancient times. Ancient Rome imported the so-called rice seed (Oryza sativa) from India, as a luxury product to be added to food or used as a medicine.
Mullet – delicacy of ancient Romans
As reported by Pliny the Elder1, who lived in the middle of the 1st century CE, one of the most eaten fish among the ancient Romans was the red mullet. As he himself points out, the fish has a “double beard” (mullus barbatus) and is not suitable for breeding, and the best specimens can be found in open waters.
Roman lunch
The basic ingredient of Roman’s dinner was bread made of various types of flour: black bread (panis rusticus, plebeius), white bread (panis secundaris) and the softest bread luxurious (panis candidus, uniform). There was no shortage of vegetables, lettuce, cabbage, leeks, chickpeas, broad beans (boiled, roasted), goat cheese and olives.
Onions – delicacy of Romans
Onion was extremely popular in ancient Roman times, and therefore it is probably still used in many dishes in Europe. With the conquest of Europe, the Romans took the vegetable with them to various regions, including Germany or Britain. In Rome, onions were considered an aphrodisiac.
Asparagus – expensive specialty among Greeks and Romans
Asparagus was a very expensive speciality in ancient Greek and Roman times that was especially frozen in the Alps for festivals and festivals. Both the Greeks and Romans appreciated their unique and delicate taste, diuretic and medical properties.
Trojan pig – Roman dish
Information about a luxurious Roman dish – the so-called The “Trojan pig” comes from the 5th century and we owe it to the scientist Macrobius. Macrobius himself describes the meaning of the dish as follows: “made pregnant with other animals and enclosed within as the Trojan horse was made pregnant with armed men”.
How did ancient Romans eat their meals?
Ancient Romans consuming soup mainly used spoons made of bronze, animal bones or wood. Richer Romans used silver cutlery. The so-called ligula a small dessert spoon. There was another type, for example coclear – a spoon with a sharp tip for pulling snails out of the shell or eating an egg. What else was used to eat?
Cumin in ancient times
Ancient Rome used a range of overseas spices such as black pepper, long pepper, ginger, cardamom and cinnamon. However, the most frequently used raw materials, both in cooking and in medicine, that were grown locally – coriander, mint and Roman cumin. The last of them was used both as an ingredient of dishes, a cosmetic raw material and a ritual plant. Where was this spice traded? What diseases were treated with it? Answer in the article below.
